Fault?
by philosophus
Summary: Troubles with cerebro, the professor confused? weird goings on the x mansion. please r&r, tis my 1st fanfic
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1

Voices, so many voices, but not just sounds, feelings, pounding away, as if all wanting to be heard at once. Whispering, screaming, but not at the listener, they were just there, unaware of someone listening to every word.

"Taya, Taya, are we listening? The performance will be in two weeks and if you would rather be away with fairies than learn your lines, then you will not be playing Titania and be sent back to the gutter from whence you came! Am I clear?"

"Yes sir, sorry sir, it shall not happen again."

"I would like to think not Miss Harker, but to believe that you will concentrate would be as ridiculous as believing in fairies themselves!"

"Yes sir," she replied, picking herself up and continued to recite the scene.

It was a pleasant afternoon in 1674, the sun was shining, but there was a fresh chill to the air, a fine day for taking the long route home according to Taya. This way she could clear her head from the stresses of rehearsals for the upcoming performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

* * *

Jean was sitting on her, bed, laptop open, briskly browsing through her spam mail when she felt a familiar psychic link establish between her and her professor.

"_Jean, could you come along to cerebro please, there's something I need to show you." _

Jean replied, _"Sure, I'll be right there," _and as she closed her laptop the telepathic bond between them gently fizzled out and she went to aid Charles.

She arrived to find her senior's brow furrowed in concern and possibly confusion, a rare sight from an esteemed telepath.

"What seems to be the problem?" Jean asked,

"I'm not entirely sure, for the last few days, cerebro has been picking up a disfigured shadow on my readings amongst the normal images. It's quite bizarre."

"What does it look like?"

"I'm not sure as it completely undistinguishable, but I can only assume that it would be of a mutant as I can't recall cerebro tracing anything otherwise unless I programme it to. I'll trace it again and show you the image."

A few minutes later, on the horizon of cerebro, the small scratchy shadowed image appeared again, Charles then handed over the headset to Jean, who herself was unconvinced of being able to use it and focused her mind. There in front of her was the same shadow her professor had seen.

"It isn't just you, weird, all of the other pictures of the mutants are as clear as mud apart from this one. How very odd." She removed the headset and gently placed it on the side of the computer, "I can go through he motherboard if you want just to check if you want, I'll send the results in later." With that, Jean started to check the computer system for any faults.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"_Hello? Can you hear me? Is there anyone out there?"_

"Go away mother, I want to want to wake up yet, it's only seven o'clock," stirring Taya replied, rolling over on the grass.

"_Hello? I'm not your mother, my name is Jean," T_aya sat bolt upright and gradually, regained her bearings.

"Gosh it's nearly time for supper, mother will go mad! I must've been asleep for some time."

"_Can you hear me?" _That voice, a new one, just like an angel's sounded in her head, one she could understand! Taken aback, she fell on to the grass.

"Yes, I can, my name in Taya, where are you speaking from?"

"_Hello Taya, I'm speaking into your mind via a machine called cerebro, tell me, have you heard voices like mine before?"_

"None that I could understand, what's a cerebro?" she replied aloud, luckily not a person was around to hear talking to what appeared to be herself.

"_It's a machine that can be used to speak to people like us, like you. Where are you?"_

"By a stream, in Hertfordshire, England and you?"

"_New York, America."_

"Oh, I heard of that, and also the stories of Captain Cook and when he discovered it, a brilliant story at that."

"_Taya, on my reading, you have no distinct outline, do you live near some sort of electrical plant or generator or something, which may be causing a disturbance in the systems?"_

"A what? I beg if your pardon Miss Jean but I no not of which you are speaking, could you try to explain such words for I am a mere working class girl with only my acting skills to get me through life, not with any knowledge you have, I'm sure."

"_Oh, I see, well..... Taya, this may seem a strange question but what year is it where you are?"_

"that is a rather bizarre question!" she replied, giggling, "for it is 1674, a joyous march afternoon to be precise, though of the exact date I am unsure, I think it may be Tuesday." Taya waited a good few minutes for a reply from her new friend Miss Jean, but none came, so thinking she had dreamt the whole thing, she finally walked home to her waiting mother.

* * *

"Jean! Jean! Come on, wake up! She's coming round! Honey, are you there?" as she started to regain her sight, Jean saw the blurred but welcoming figure of Scott Summers, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened? How long have I been down here?" she sat up to a warm hug from her love.

"About fifteen minutes, I think, Hank was on his way to giving you a hand with checking out the motherboard and found you here. You must've fainted or something, what were you doing?" Suddenly it all came back to her, checking the motherboard, putting on the headset...

"Taya...I must find the professor!" with that she scrambled form Scott's arms and ran to the professor's office with Scott, not far behind. Reaching the door, she grabbed it and just as I opened, she fell through, the room around her blacking out instantaneously.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hello, Miss Jean, please come back, I want to know what's wrong with me, please speak to me, hello?" but no reply came, so Taya sat back onto her bed, her head pulsing, mainly because of her feverish temperature but the origin unknown which gradually took her into a deep sleep.

DONG...DONG! Taya abruptly sat up in a cold sweat as a wave of nausea swept over her, the church telling her how early it was. She ran towards the window just in time to eject a torrent of blood-tarnished vomit onto any unsuspecting drunk below. Tears streaming down her face she called upon her mother who rushed to her side, lay her back in bed with a damp cloth on her forehead. Her mother quickly got some lavender and placed some upon her pillow to aid her sleeping, kissed her cheek and went back to her own room.

* * *

"_Yuck, hospital smell," _Jean thought to herself, looking up at the ceiling above her. Averting her eyes to the left she saw Scott, dozing in a chair wearing a small mask over his nose and mouth. Flowers covered the cabinet beside her bed, and she recognised the small X on the greetings cards. Scott's eyes opened and met hers.

"Hey honey," she whispered, reaching out a clammy hand to touch his.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he replied, combing his fingers through her hair. Jean turned towards the kidney dish by her bed and after a pregnant pause, projected blood into it.

"Apart from the blood, slightly better I suppose," Jean spluttered, replacing the kidney dish. Scott gently kissed her forehead, the mask gently brushing her hairline, "The professor wants a word, I'll leave you two for a bit, do you want anything from the food hall? No, you don't, ignore me," Jean managed a smile as he left and her professor entered the room.

"_How are we feeling Jean?" _Charles asked telepathically, not wanting to waste any of Jean's physical energy. He was wearing a similar mask to Scott's, which made her feel even queasier.

"_Terrible Professor, I feel as if I have the plague!" _She replied, _"Do they know what's wrong with me?"_ A look of deep concern and anticipation was strewn across her face, waiting for the hopefully good news.

"_Tuberculosis, Jean, I don't know how you contracted it, but that's what you have, all the symptoms are there and should be quickly treatable as this form was destroyed a while ago, you should be fit soon."_

"_That would explain the masks, but I don't understand, I had my TB jab when I was 12, how did I get it," _answered Jean, puzzled.

"_Rest, I'm sure all the answers will found, in due time." _And with that, Charles Xavier wheeled himself out of the room.

A Cold sweat dripped down Jean's forehead, hot and cold flushes flowed through her body as she tossed and turned on the bed, writhing with the pain in her lungs, burning as if millions of tiny hot needles were pressing into her chest. Her breathing now restricted, she woke with a start. She sat up, wiped the icy beads of sweat form her brow, _"surely the antibiotics must kick in soon, it's been two weeks and I still can't sleep." _Wandering towards the small window, she looked out on to the night-lights of Manhattan, an eerily beautiful sight. She opened it, breathed fresh air and let the breeze gently touch her face. Then, as if on the breeze, she heard a soft, sorrowful voice, calling her name, _"Jean, Miss Jean, are you there? Miss Jean, I think I'm dying, please help me." _A chill went down Jean's spine and she focused all her energy on the voice, trying to find it in the hospital, in New York, in America...then she remembered.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4- a short one I know, but I'm currently writing more!

"_Taya," _her mind whispered, projecting the gentle thought through the sands of time, _"I'm here, what's wrong?" _

"_I think I'm dying Miss Jean, I can't sleep, or eat and I keep coughing blood, my mother spoke with the doctor, but there's nothing he can do but leave me, though it's gotten worse and now mother is starting to get the same way and I don't want to her or me to die..." _Taya's thought trailed off, but Jean could still feel the psychic link between them, stronger than before. Their connection was so intense that Jean could almost feel Taya's emotions and her physical pain.........

Jean suddenly felt incredibly weak at the knees and had to sit down. She sat there for a few minutes, replaying what she just heard from Taya. The blood, lack of sleep, getting worse, it was the same.

"The link," she whispered aloud. _"Hang in there Taya, I'm sure the professor will know how to deal with this," _her thoughts slurred, for as their connection intensified, the pain in her lungs worsened. Jean strained to keep herself conscious, but the more he strained the more the pain grew. Faintly she could hear _"Miss Jean, it hurts to breathe, my chest hurts me so, please help me, mother's stopped breathing, I don't want to go............" _But the now thrashing pain in her chest consumed her, and with her last ounce of mental strength drifting away with the breeze, Jean slumped onto the chair, awash with darkness.


End file.
